Talk to your local authorities on EV charging demand Government tells fleets

The Government is going to invest “massive” amounts of money to boost UK charging point infrastructure, with a focus on a “step change” in the ability for local authorities to meet local demand, including fleets.

The Government published its EV charging infrastructure strategy some time ago, setting out its vision, looking at the rapid charging network, local charging network and the consumer experience.

“We’ve made progress on all those fronts,” said Aaron Berry (pictured) at the May Fleet 200 Strategy Network meeting.

He is deputy head of the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles at the Department for Transport.

The public charging infrastructure has “grown massively” over the last few years, with 42,259 charge points in place, more than doubling in the last couple of years – and keeping track with the number of EVs on the roads.

At the end of September 2022, there were 603,000 BEVs on UK roads. By the end of that month BEVs accounted for 12% of all new road vehicle registrations in the UK.

“But that number is going to increase significantly. There’s an estimate of something like 10 million plug-in vehicles on our roads in just seven years’ time.

“This means that we could need anywhere between 280,000 and 720,000 charge points in that time.”

A step to meeting the objective includes Project Rapid to address public charging infrastructure across the strategic road network, particularly on motorways where there’s an upgrade plan.

But Berry said the ‘local space’, in urban areas, where the biggest emphasis will be on.

The challenges, he said, are considerable, for example in the high regional diversity, with many parts of London benefiting from a high proportion of rapid chargers reflecting a higher proportion of EVs on the roads.

“But we would like to see much more equitable regional access to chargers wherever you are.”

Another big challenge is local authorities, which while being in control of local roads and the decision makers on a charge point outside your home or roadway for example, they lack the resource to plan and deliver infrastructure.

But Berry said, every local authority will have resource dedicated to EV infrastructure delivery, supported by “huge” government funding.

“In the last few years, it’s doubled, then doubled again, with massive injections of cash,” he said. This included £31 million from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Pilot to 25 local authorities to provide 3,000 charge points.

In February, £8m was given to the largest 81 local authorities to fund dedicated staff and open dedicated EV offices.

And, on March 30, as part of the Government’s Powering Up Britain net zero growth plan, the Department for Transport announced the launch of a £343m LEVI scheme for local charge points and £37.8m ‘capability’ funding for local authorities.

And for smaller local authorities, the on-street residential charging point scheme will remain for at least the next year to support them in their objectives.

“And there is a lot more to come,” Berry promised.

LEVI schemes

They have two objectives, the first to deliver a “step-change” in the scale of deployment of local, primarily low power, on-street charging infrastructure (eg lamp posts and bollards on residential streets) in England; the second is accelerating the commercialisation of, and investment in, the local charging infrastructure sector to reduce the amount of taxpayers’ money being spent subsidising it.

Every local authority in England has been allocated a share of LEVI funding, Berry said.

Local authorities will be given “tools, training and best practice” support for their EV offices and “skill up” their workforces.

They’re being invited to apply for LEVI support, with the DfT looking for scaled charging point deployment, value for money, private investment element, realistic timescales and realistic timescales amongst other factors.

Applicants must show that the majority of chargepoints will benefit residents without off-street parking.

Other users that could benefit, as long as there’s “sound commercial reasoning” and only a minority of chargepoints are targeted at them include tourists/customers/non-residential commuters, taxis and commercial vehicle drivers.

Local authorities cannot include these users in their plans: off-street and workplace chargers, rapid charge points on motorways or non-residential A-roads, those for buses, blue light services and HGVs.

Local authorities and fleets

“We are encouraging local authorities to think about fleet operators in their investment plans,” Berry said.

“They will need to know where there infrastructure demand is going to come from. We are seeing the likes of Addison-Lee and other companies start to talk to local authorities about how they’re clients and other companies are considered.”

He encouraged fleets to talk to local authorities – and their EV offices – to provide an indication of demand.

EV charging payments – and government intervention

Berry said the Government is intervening to introduce more regulation around charging infrastructure.

“There will be regulation requiring a level of charge point reliability. Payment is another area. So, faster charge points, above eight kilowatts, will have to have contactless payment as an option.

“There are arguably too many payment apps and they don’t suit everyone. It is an area that must be addressed.”